Survival
by Redcell2004
Summary: The universes heroes failed and were unable to activate the ark and dying in the process leaving the flood to wreak havoc on the universe. only a few are still alive struggling to live in the ghost of what earth. it the human covenant war was seen as the biggest war they had seen nothing yet... [Cover By ThemeFinland on DeviantArt - I Don't Own The Image]
1. Chapter 1 (Fall)

She knew she didn't have much time left the worlds best couldn't stop them and that meant the likes of her wouldn't with her little skills she'd made it this long with luck and so many sacrifices. Oh those she'd lost. She knew if it wasn't for their sacrifice she wouldn't be here and so she couldn't give up but the screams also couldn't give up to let her sleep. It was going to haunt her for a short while as that was probably all the had left to live and as much as she feared t happening she knew there was little to stop it. It felt as though she was blessed to have had a gas mask at the time to purify the air getting in to her because all the others weren't so lucky and it got inside them as they breathed, hid and cried. It stopped for no-one. They were so close to winning for it all to be over but they just couldn't make it in time to the Ark to activate it. She was huddled in the corner of the barracks with the magnum sitting in her hand like a lifeline or escape...but it wasn't how she wanted it to end but then again she and billions didn't either. Scuttling along the floor with its sickly yellow bulbous body moving by with grotesque ease on it evil little tentacles brushing up the wall and floors spreading this plague to anyone out there hiding.

With that a scream echoed through the hallways with a crack of bones that would pop from its socket and bend and contort in ways not physically possible while breaking down the persons mind turning limbs in a grim balloon or sadistic whip. Another scream was heard closer and she hugged the magnum closer with the cold metal resting close against the cold crimson blood on her arm. Was she dying? She didn't know or expect anything else. This was the end. The flood was everywhere and moving anywhere was impossible without unleashing a personal armageddon as they track you endlessly. She was hungry and dehydrated and all this had only happened in a matter of hours. One the large mega cities fell that was it everything was consumed and it was likely to have spread to other planets as well. There was nothing left to do but survive.

She had to move the storage room was just at the end of the corridor and it was quiet. No creaking of bones, no shuffling of limbs and the screams were far from her. This was her moment, so she pulled her self from behind the large filing cabinets that had been thrown around and stepped out into the corridor. She couldn't lie it wasn't a pretty sight with sparking cables, green goo and a severed leg stopping a door from closing there had been a war in here and there was no doubt about it. She pulled the magnum up and slowly moved along the hallway seeing blood up and down the walls human and other alike, she made it down to the storage room. It would have food and water for months, ammo would be plentiful and it is super secure with it being airtight and only few people allowed in. Then it struck her, she didn't have the code. She felt like giving up it was too much for her but in her slump on the floor she saw a small tear of post-it note and it read 200304 with the 4 slightly smudged. She could have jumped for joy but it would have been to loud so she pressed it in and it let out a whoosh and opened. She smiled but then it dropped into horror to see the formation of a proto-gravemind right in front of her. Clicking could be heard as some of the flood infected marines moved forward so she ran harder and faster than ever before towards the end on the hallway. There was a window. She could jump, who knew how high it was but they were gaining on her. So she shot the glass and with a shattering sound and diamond like shards hitting the ground she leaped….


	2. Chapter 2 (Cruel)

She was crazy whoever she was. He wasn't sure what she was thinking jumping from the 3rd story of the complex but she may not have died from the fall but what was chasing her would be relentless and there was nothing he could do. All he could do was watch from the cameras or what ones where left but he didn't know what he could do he was locked in and that was that. He had food, water and a shotgun he could last a while couldn't he? No one else seemed to be willing to do anything or would give up immediately when shit hit the fan. He let out a heavy sigh and lent on the desk before turning his head to his friend on the floor, but was he truly a friend? He couldn't tell as they'd only met as the figure on the ground was injured badly and at the time nearby. There wasn't any medicine in here so what could be done was running low. So he slumped into the chair causing it to roll back slightly and looked down at his name-tag "D. Holland" probably going to be mixed in with the flood biomass eventually he concluded with his pessimism clouding his mind.

It was probably best to check on the guy on the ground being that he was bleeding badly before and only did what he could with what little he had. He rolled him gently over to look at him, he was bleeding from the arm lightly but otherwise was seeming in decent condition for the giant gash on his chest going from the bottom to top of his ribs. He seemed to be breathing still so everything was as ok as it possibly could be. He _needed_ to get out of here. He'd been trapped in here without the door code for way to long and he needed to try find someone or anything. Maybe try finding the figure who Jumped? He didn't know what to do but he had to make sure his mask was on tightly and that his shotgun was loaded, which it was.

A slight crunching was heard causing him to look round to see the man on the ground twitching and shaking violently causing him to run over to him as the man started choking on blood and frothing. Bones started cracking and skin started stretching out causing distorted scream to rip from the lungs of the man. Holland scrambled back till his back hit the wall and his breathing was heavy and uneven while watching clothes and bones protrude from all ends before a large fragment of skull poked out and...everything stopped. He stopped moving it went quiet. Absolutely silent and calm. So he crawled forward to look at the (now) corpse that was bloody and covered in green mixed with yellow along with discolored bone outside the body. It thrashed up causing him to jump back and grab the barrel of the shotgun and pumping it before the once un-moving body leaped at him with a bone like sword sticking in its hand. This caused a large discharging crack to be let out as hundreds of small metal shards to rip through the body creating a hole in the upper neck area to appear and for it to drop down slumped in on itself.

I was time **now**. He put in a new shell and shot the lock of the door causing it crack and fly open and crash back at the door and he started running down the hallway that was littered with fluids and bullet casings. He saw at the end was a window shot through the glass and around it a figure at the end near the entrance of the stairs causing him to re-fire the shotgun so the deceased body of one on the elites was to stumble back onto sharp glass sticking from the window frame. He slammed into the wall of the stairs and started stepping down floor after floor till at the end a carrier is spotted shambling towards him with its large bulbous sack and tentacle arms. When shot masses of spurting green goo and demons that were the infection forms. Another shot rang out but not from a his shotgun but a magnum? It shot some of them causing them to pop like evil little balloons while a figure shouted near a large metal escape door "Get over here now!" It yells. So he bursts through the door snd was blinded by the sunlight and the horrors that had became the outside world...


	3. Chapter 3 (Decapitated)

It soon became rare to find anyone alive let alone alive, but here she was with someone alive and not dying fighting back as well with her. It felt great. Since this situation had started she was alone with just her in dimly lit places with a firearm trying not to die but it was also just her and her thoughts so she had concocted a plan. The ONI sites had air filters that would mean that she could eat and drink without fearing she would die after from the spores but there was one very key and important issue she would have the deal with first. She didn't know where to find one. She had an idea but not a location. She had a location but no key. She had a key but no hope. One thing would lead to another.

Being jogged back to the unfolding situation of running down the black tarmac road with much-twisted metal from the cars with crunched glass scattered around and a shout to go left as up ahead was a running, screaming, murderous remains of their once friends and family. This pushed them to go into an alleyway with the overwhelming stench of rotten food and other items among the blood and scraps of flesh before they came to a jagged metal chain-link fence with a gap underneath. She threw herself to the floor with a thud and pulled her self through the gap after the man, who she still didn't know the name of. Whilst pulling herself through a sharp blade of the metal cuts lightly through her arm leaving a dash of blood on the metal and a thin trail down her arm but most importantly she made it through without being grabbed.

She sped out into the main road and sees a large concrete building that compared to most other buildings was lacking the fire and collapsing walls it was – it was the ONI building. It was almost as if some higher power had heard her non-existent prayers and answered them and it may be her best chance their best chance and if there was any good time to speak up it was now.

"Towards the ONI building it's our best chance" she shouts out over labored breathing.

"Are you crazy its probably their fault and its all in there" He replies.

"Trust Me!" She yells

"Aw fuck it we'll die if we don't we'll give it a gamble" with that they run faster away from the ever-increasing hoard behind them.

They push past the cars and get to a wall that seems scaleable due to the chips and cracks with a running start they push up and use those cracks as foot and hand hold before landing on the ground and looking back nothing came over the wall and not inside the wall. There was peace for once and time for respite and to importantly catch her breath after all that running.  
"We made it," He said.  
"Yeah we did" She replied

"Never caught your name"

"Lindsey, what about you then"

"Daniel Holland, oh and hey I'm going to head to the security booth see if we can get further in"

"Alright I'm going to look around the courtyard, see you in a bit Dan"

With that, they both went on their separate ways but it gave time to take in the area. There where grey generic planter boxes with some small red flowers matching the blood which the blood that like every other place on earth but there was, however, corpses that you would have expected to be dragged off to the hell that was wherever the flood took them. She hoped really hoped that someone anyone else survived and she wouldn't be alone with only one person because she didn't know the stranger she had saved.

Right on the dot, she saw someone in a grey uniform run out into the courtyard screaming with audible desperation in their voice along with someone in a white shirt and trousers as one of the combat forms ran and leaped onto the grey one. Insisting she had to at least keep one of them alive she pulled out her trusty side-arm and aimed at it as best she could without the sprawling yellow mess and fired. The little projectile hit it. The monster looked up at her un-fazed before it almost grinned before pulling the man's head back to a sickening angle causing veins to burst and ooze as the screaming was cut off but it didn't stop. It threw the man's head like a rag doll from side to side till it came off his body trailing after it with a pearly white spine with specks of blood splashed around on it. She pulled the trigger multiple times each one after striking it with unmatched accuracy causing its own yellow 'blood' to fly out until it stopped moving to leave a scared woman behind her sobbing and a smoking barrel of her gun only for him to arrive.

"What the fuck happened here?"

A/N: This is the first chapter after Halloween and I have the premise for each chapter set up so I hope that you enjoy this late Halloween chapter but I damn well aim to finish what I started unlike a lot of things. This will likely not be a long story but should have ten chapters so I hope you stick around till then.

\- Redcell


	4. Chapter 4 (Glowing)

Dan looked upon the event that had transpired while he was gone and stood in awe. His shook up saviour and the new stranger stood about looking dazed with one thought prevailing in the current situation. Lindsay was still hurt from the brush along the serrated chain link fence. With all that was floating about in the air, it was urgent that it was sorted out before another infected was added to the ranks just outside the walls and apparently even in the building. Taking one last glance at the pair he sets on the security building near the entrance. Three things were being searched for: A first aid kit, a higher level clearance keycard and an extra weapon for the person who incidentally joined the group.

Looking along the spotless white walls a small roll of bandages in a beige colour and some spray antibiotics. As for weapons, an M6C magnum was found in a desk drawer among general clutter like cigarettes and magazines. Now all he could do was hope he wasn't too late. Taking a quick jog back to there last location he finds them moved very little other than to get closer and talk. So taking a deep breath he gets closer to talk.

"Hey, guys I picked up some stuff down in the security office that is fairly important." He says.

"Yeah?" Lindsay replies.

"You cut your leg and we don't want that getting infected and a weapon for our friend over here," Dan answers.

"Thanks, it's Carly by the way," Lindsay says as she watches Dan Unfurl the bandages and wrap the cleaned wound up.

"Alright, then Carly we need to get inside for safety as we can get in the bunkers as try to wait out as much as possible."

Carly nods and Lindsay stands up unsteady and swiftly adjusts before moving up the concrete ramp to the grand ONI entrance.

The entrance is made of an onyx marble stone with a glossy sheen on it. But like many places, it was covered with a generous dashing of dried and undried blood. The front desk looked like a stampede had come in and out again. Lights flickered as some of the hydraulic doors are jammed. Stepping over crunched sand-like glass Dan moves over to the lift entrance and presses the button highly sceptical that it would work and surprisingly it did. With a cataclysmic amount of clunking as it struggled down, it made a faint ding as it stops. Inside is a short horror story of what must have happened previously. Inside the walls were coated with gore as what is barely recognised as a man in a suit lays on the floor missing his head and having a humungous gory chunk of his chest gone along with all vital organs.

While not the most hygienic or best for their mental state it was silently decided it was better this way. As they all step in a cloud of doubt and discomfort blanket them and, waiting for this to move, Carly moves to hit the button with no response other than a jolt and then nothing.

"It seems that it's gears jammed up. It's not uncommon but someone will need to go up and unjam it" Carly says with a nervous edge matching her expression.

"Here goes nothing," Dan says pushing the hatch up and swinging his weight up till he is in the dark lift shaft. Carefully taking steps in the dark he finds the motor. With Carly's prediction, it was jammed again however with a more grotesque item in it. A large alien arm was wedged in the motor causing movement to open up the veins to leak more blue blood. With shaking hands he grabs the arm near the long four fingers and as it finally rips free so does the blood it previously contained causing it to splatter all over Dan's clothing.

He hops down the hatch again to the waiting people below.

"So what happened?" Carly asks. " Was it the loose cable again?"

"Yeah, I got it loose again and yeah it was a cable" He replied giving a small white lie for the sake of morale.

"What about the blood?' Lindsay asks suspiciously.

"Slipped a bit on the way down and some were on the roof," He says trying to form a quick and plausible cover-up.

To avoid any further questions he moved to press the lift button when a loud and angry scream emanates from beyond a low hanging strip light as it clings onto its wires. The pushing of the buttons becomes increasingly urgent. The figure is illuminated under the flickering light causing a dull yellow glow on it. It appears to be a yellowy green fleshed Sangheili with a sharp sword composed of bone. It's head and the left side of it is slumped like its tired but in this case its existence. As the doors begin to close it runs at the door full speed moaning and yelling as the slow metallic doors close. The bone sword forces its way into the door frame as it closes causing the door to crush it with such a sickening force. The crunch mimics the much more pleasant sound of leaves that is if the leaves could scream in pain what follows it a ripping sound as the flesh peels from its body.

The lift goes up to its floor and announces it to be floor four. The door opens and all there is now is a severed arm and a dark hallway.

"What could go wrong," he thinks...


End file.
